Jan. 23, 2011
ATLANTA – Head Coach MaChelle Joseph called it “bounce-back-ability”.
Whatever she calls it, it worked as Georgia Tech responded from a difficult loss at Duke on Friday with a resounding 67-54 win over Boston College on Sunday afternoon at Alexander Memorial Coliseum. With the win, the Jackets improve to 17-5 overall and 5-1 in the ACC, while BC drops to 15-5 and 2-3 in league play.
“I want to give a lot of credit to our players who came off the bench, Chelsea Regins, Mo Bennett and Nisha Adams, I thought they were huge for us,” Joseph said. “That’s what you expect of upperclassmen. We knew we were going to need to use some other people because of the quick turnaround. I told the kids we had to have bounce-back-ability.
“We said after the Duke game we’re going to throw it in the trash,” Joseph added. “It literally couldn’t have been any worse than it was, so let’s just throw it away and start over, and come out after Boston College. I thought we did that. I thought we came out aggressive and attacking.”
Possibly no Jacket showed more resiliency than senior Alex Montgomery, who tallied only two points on a pair of free throws against the Blue Devils. The Tacoma, Wash., native responded with her seventh double-double of the year and first since Jan. 2 against Jacksonville State with 15 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
Junior point guard Metra Walthour notched her sixth double-figure scoring game with a team-best 16 points. It is the third time since ACC play started Walthour has finished in double-digits. Classmate Mo Bennett came off the bench to tie her season-high of 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting.
“I can’t say enough about what Mo and Chelsea brought today,” Joseph said. “I met with them yesterday and said `we’re going to need you guys because you two get on the boards and get hustle points, and we need your toughness in there.’ I didn’t think they got enough minutes at Duke. They’re experienced veterans with toughness. I thought the tip-in Chelsea Regins got when they got within six was a huge momentum builder for us.”
Regins finished the game with nine points and four rebounds, while Adams added five tallies, two assists and two steals for Tech. For the game, the Jacket bench outscored BC’s reserves 24-5.
After a poor shooting night at Duke, Tech struggled again in the first half, shooting only 31.4 percent in the opening frame. But again Tech showed that “bounce-back-ability” Joseph talked about, in converting 57.1 percent its of field goal attempts in the second half.
While Joseph only played nine Jackets, only the third time this year at least 10 Jackets haven’t seen action, the minutes were very well distributed. Six Tech student-athletes saw at least 20 minutes while another two played at least 14.
“You saw that our depth really paid off today,” Joseph said.
Tech heads back on the road for a two-game swing. On Thursday, the Jackets will travel to Blacksburg, Va., to face the Virginia Tech Hokies in a 7 p.m. battle at Cassell Coliseum. Georgia Tech will then travel south to Miami for a Sunday match-up with the Hurricanes. Tip-off against Miami is set for 3 p.m. at BankUnited Center with CSS broadcasting the game. For more information, visit RamblinWreck.com or follow us on Twitter, @GTWBB.
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